1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle body front structure for protecting the legs and the head of a pedestrian when a frontal collision occurs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding a vehicle in which a front end edge of a front hood is positioned adjacent to a top end portion of a front grille provided in a front end portion of the vehicle body and extending in the up-and-down direction, a technique for lessening an impact when the vehicle collides with a pedestrian head-on by allowing the front hood to bend and deform upon coming into contact with the head of the pedestrian has been developed as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2008-296851 for example.
There is also a vehicle in which a front grille extending in the up-and-down direction is provided in a front end portion of the vehicle body, a bumper extends upwardly from a top end portion of the front grille and then extends toward the rear side of the vehicle body, and a front end edge of a front hood is positioned adjacent to an end portion of the extending bumper. The end portion of the bumper, which extends toward the front hood, is fixed to a beam that extends in the body width direction and is supported by the vehicle body.
In the vehicle in which the front end edge of the front hood is disposed rearward relative to the front end of the vehicle, the distance between the front end portion of the vehicle and the front end edge of the front hood is longer than the corresponding distance in the vehicle described in JP-A No. 2008-296851. Therefore, when the vehicle collides with a pedestrian, the head of the pedestrian may hit the bumper end portion positioned forward relative to the front hood and the resistive force that the head receives may be excessively large.
Besides, since the front grille is supported by the beam via the bumper, when a thigh of the pedestrian collides with the front grille, the resistive force that the thigh receives may also be excessively large because of poor performance of the front grille and the bumper in terms of impact absorption.